One week after the Xbox One but the PS4 is the winner...

At midnight on Thursday, Sony took the spotlight with its eagerly anticipated PS4 finally hitting Lancashire’s shelves.

Sony has struck back at Microsoft in the battle for the space under Lancastrians’ television sets.

Here in Preston the crowds turned out again at midnight to buy the new Playstation console – as they did seven days earlier for the Xbox One.

And the early sales figures suggest the PS4 is the most popular in the run up to Christmas.

A worker at Game, within St George’s Shopping Centre in Preston, said: “It was close in terms of sales, but the PS4 just edged it.

“Both launches massively boosted sales. People seem to appreciate these launches and have turned out in force for both.

“It was great to see so many people braving the cold to get their hands on the new consoles. It’s been a bright start to the new generation.”

Tinie Tempah performed at the launch venue in Covent Garden, London.

And the rapper said: ‘’I have always been a big gaming fan and it’s such an honour to be involved.

“The crowds are very excited and I intend to whip them into even more of a frenzy just before the clock strikes 12.’’

The PS4 aims to take social connectivity to the next level – you can immediately share your best gameplay moments with friends with a simple press of the new ‘Share’ button on the controller.

Andrew House, CEO of Sony, said at the launch event that the PlayStation 4 is designed to “connect” people via play in a way that mimics online social networking.

“We are trying to create a much more social and connected feeling. The whole goal of PlayStation 4 is to connect people via play, in a way that they maybe have not had before.”

The controller is perfectly weighted, with a built-in speaker, touchpad, glowing light sensor, rumble capability, and all your usual sticks and buttons.

Meanwhile, with around 150,000 units shifted in the UK in just 48 hours, the Xbox One’s sales figures didn’t disappoint – but some of those first weekends with their owners did, according to a number of reported faults.

Microsoft has acknowledged a disc drive fault on some systems, making loud noises and sometimes not recognising the disc content, while there are also reports that TV integration could be adversely affected in the UK and Europe due to the console’s 60Hz output, compared to the 50Hz frame rate that TV is broadcast in these regions.

Converting the frame rate to compensate for this can cause increased image judder.

In the charts, the Xbox One’s arrival had an impact on new entries and chart positions.

FIFA 14 came out on top, followed by Call of Duty: Ghosts, while XBOX exclusives Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 and Ryse: Son of Rome all performed well at five, seven and 10 respectively.